Changemaker Institute is the social venture incubator at Tulane University that matches student’s social ventures with experts in the New Orleans community. The Institute recently went through the 52Businesses bootcamp, a New Orleans accelerator, to help focus on “change” and revamp the organization.
According to a release from Tulane, leaders of the Institute worked to redevelop core tenants of its training program for students launching ventures.
One of the goals of the organization is to help students turn their ideas into real businesses they can develop overtime, with providing the resources to do so. “Launching a full-fledged non-profit or for-profit organization while you are a student can seem intimidating, but Changemaker Institute creates a community of peers that dream big and take action together,” explains assistant director of social innovation engagement Rebecca Otten. “If the venture doesn’t work exactly as planned, these students now have colleagues that they can turn to in order to reflect on that experience and learn from it.”
Through the organization’s work with 52Businesses, the Changemaker Institute has now created various offerings for students entering with ventures at different stages of development, an impact that extends out to the alumni network of over 40 as well.
“[The students] are supported by mentors from the Tulane and New Orleans communities that can share their own experience of failure and success,” Otten continued.